Shopping for Christmas
by YulianaHenderson
Summary: "Minelli realized in that moment that it had been too long since he'd seen the two, or their children for that matter. He had been to the wedding, had given Lisbon away even, but after that, he hadn't spoken to them a lot. He had never found the courage to actually call her and talk with her when he really did want to talk to her." Jisbon, One-shot, Rated K plus.


**A/N: You know who I miss the most from all the characters that left the show? Exactly, Minelli. I just saw a few old scenes of him, and was like: Ugh, this man is the equivalent of epicness. So I thought I'd write a family Jisbon fic that included him. Didn't mean for it to turn out so Angsty, but I attempted to make it lighter towards the end, hope you can agree on it as well ^^**

**And I'm aware of the fact that I drastically skipped perspective somewhere halfway through the story. I just wanted to elaborate on Minelli's emotions more, so I had to do that, if only for my own sake ^^**

**Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.**

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**_'Shopping for Christmas'_**

"Dammit," Lisbon muttered under her breath, turning the shopping cart into the grocery aisle.

She wanted to know where they were, every moment of every day. Unfortunately, they were also Jane's, and therefore were always lost.

"Jake! Dammit-"

"Teresa Lisbon! I thought I would never see you again," she heard a familiar voice, and she already felt her anger and panic disappear. She turned around and her suspicions of the owner of the voice had been confirmed.

"Virgil," she said, smiling, but didn't stop looking for her over-enthusiastic monkeys – and her children as well. She walked past him, but motioned for him to follow her. He did, turning his cart and walking after Lisbon.

"Looking for someone?" he asked. She rolled her eyes.

"How did you figure that one out?" She sighed, and turned into the next aisle. "I'm looking for Jane. He has the kids."

Minelli smiled knowingly, and she couldn't miss the brief dart of his eyes to her belly.

"_All_ the kids?"

She shook her head, smiling, and turned away again.

"I _thought_ he had the kids anyway, but he's," she stopped, arriving at a corner and turned her head, "at the coffee and tea department." Jane looked up, still caught in concentration, holding a colorful box.

"Oh my, Teresa, did you know this? There is Chocolate Mint Black tea! Can we buy this?"

"You don't even know if you're going to like it. And where are the kids?"

"The wha- Oh, the kids." He smiled sheepishly, and slowly put the tea box in the shopping cart, not stopping his subtle smile towards her. She just rolled her eyes.

"Where are the kids?" she asked again. Jane averted his eyes, not wanting to see all the ways she was going to kill him once he told her what had happened.

"Well, it's a great story, actually. You're going to love it one day."

"I hope that you'll be around that one day so we can share a laugh, but I don't think you'll survive today."

"Teresa, really. You don't have to kill me-"

"Where are the kids?" she asked, a little bit more insistent this time.

"I kind of lost them around the candy aisle-"

"Dammit Jane," she hissed and ran away, leaving the cart and Minelli with Jane.

The younger man smiled. "Hello Virgil."

"Patrick. Enjoying your time with Teresa, I see."

"What can I say? It's nice to press her buttons."

"Just make sure you don't kill her in the process."

"I'll try."

That moment, Jane was attacked by blurs of brown, black and pink, and a crescendo of chuckles and shrieks followed. The blurs started to speak, all at the same time.

"Daddy, daddy, look at all the candy!"

"We want this!"

"Can we have this?"

Minelli laughed, while Jane tried to make them talk on a reasonable level and not at screaming volume. Not that he had reacted any way different than the three children in front of him.

"Calm down, please, Mommy will kill me," Jane said quickly, and the trio chuckled.

"Well, maybe you had it coming," Minelli interrupted.

Now that was an anticlimax.

The trio looked at the old man, not knowing who he was and what he was doing here and why he was looking at them like that.

Then, he reached out to shake all of their hands.

"Hey kids, I'm Virgil Minelli. I used to be your parents' boss."

They frowned, but then started shaking his hand.

Jane smiled at the confusion of his children. "Why don't you tell Virgil who you are and how old you are? I'm sure he would love to know."

"Well, since I'm the oldest, I'll begin," the tallest boy said, and stepped up to Minelli. He had brown hair like his mother, but there was a faint hint of blue in his green eyes. Minelli figured it had to be something with the light, just like the boy's father's eyes. "I'm Jacob, and I'm six."

The only girl in the company wanted to come up next, but Jacob pushed her aside and instead pulled the other boy to Minelli. The boy hesitated before starting to introduce himself as well. He had dark-blonde hair, and clear green eyes.

"I'm Noah."

"And he's five," Jacob added when Noah didn't add more, and Minelli smiled. Somehow, Noah reminded him of Lisbon when she was with strangers.

"Five? That's really old, Noah. You're becoming a grown man!"

Noah blushed but Jacob just rolled his eyes.

"Come on. I'm _six_. You didn't say that to me."

"No, that's because you _are already_ one."

Jacob got a 1000-watt smile on his face, looking proudly at his siblings as if to say, 'I told you so', and then forcefully pulled the girl to the front. She almost hit the shopping cart with her head, and that earned Jacob a kick in the shin – oh mighty, how much these children looked like their parents.

She ignored Jacob who winched in pain and almost started swearing, and walked up to Minelli, bowing as if she was a princess.

She had blonde hair, like her father, and when she looked up at him, he saw her eyes were edging blue. It was almost as if in the beginning, Lisbon's genes tried to win but with Lucy had just given up. He wondered what the baby in Lisbon's tummy would look like once he/she was born.

"Hi Sir, I'm Lucy and I'm the youngest. I'm three." She moved closer to him, putting both her hands on her cheeks indicating she was going to whisper something, and he moved closer so that her hands touched the side of his head. "But I'm the smartest."

She pulled away and chuckled, before turning around and seeing her brothers standing annoyingly. Maybe they had heard her, and she smiled wickedly, before she ran over to her father, launching herself so he had to catch her.

"Oh my god, dammit, Patrick Jane!"

Jane winched and the three children chuckled, making Minelli chuckle as well.

Lucy placed a kiss on her father's cheek to assure him she was there when Mommy killed him.

Lisbon just internally counted her monkeys and calmed down when she found all three present and in one piece. She ran a quick hand through her hair and came to stand beside Jane.

"I swear, next time, _I_'m taking the children with me. I trust you too much, that's for sure. I hope you at least managed to introduce them to Minelli."

"I did. Well, they did. We all turned out great in the end so there's no need for that annoyed glare. You always keep saying how you can't wait until the kids are a bit more responsible – well, now they were responsible enough not to get me involved entirely. They slipped my attention just like we all slipped yours."

"God, you're despicable," Lisbon murmured, and she took over Lucy who had been squirming and swinging her arms and legs to get to her mother during Jane's entire speech.

"But, we can draw a lesson from this," Jane said, holding up one finger, and his facial expression made Lucy laugh. "Agent Minelli saved the day. He always does."

Minelli actually was surprised at the sudden acknowledgement of his presence, since the whole family had been ignoring him ever since Lisbon had joined.

He smiled at the couple.

"I should do something with this talent. I saw it coming the moment Jane walked through the doors of the CBI. Didn't mean I actually thought that it would happen, but hey, you're married with three children and one is being formed as we speak so I guess I have to admit that it _has_ happened."

The couple merely smiled at Minelli, and didn't hesitate from moving closer, Jane wrapping an arm around Lisbon's waist.

"Yes, it _did_ happen," Jane said. Minelli expected Lisbon to roll her eyes but it never occurred.

"And are you happy now?" Minelli asked Jane.

Jane looked at Lisbon for a brief moment, and Minelli could see all the answers Jane could've possibly given. This was nothing but pure love, something that was highly rare these days. But then again, the two had come down a long path with a lot of obstacles, nothing about them had ever been standard, not even their friendship.

"I am," Jane said, and quickly pecked her lips with his.

Minelli realized in that moment that it had been too long since he'd seen the two, or their children for that matter. He had been to the wedding, had given Lisbon away even, but after that, he hadn't spoken to them a lot. Sometimes, Lisbon would call, just to check on him, especially after they got the news that his wife had died.

Lisbon had told him she'd wanted to come over but he had insisted she'd stay with her family. She'd almost killed him with worried text messages and voicemails, until he had just unplugged everything that Lisbon could get in contact with, and went out fishing.

It wasn't like he didn't want to know anything about how Lisbon was doing now, because he did. He had always considered her his own daughter and knowing if she was happy was important to him. But he had never found the courage to actually call her and talk with her when he really did want to talk to her.

He sighed, and smiled as Lucy squirmed out of her mother's arms when the quick peck became something much more than brief. Minelli looked at the couple that was kissing right here in front of him, and he sighed an almost sad sigh.

He should never have allowed Lisbon to come this close to his heart. Because the feeling he was feeling now was just hurt, despair. It felt like he was watching his daughter with the arrogant, popular and handsome boy that he would never agree of.

He knew she had given up all hope of having a decent relationship once she and Jane had gotten married. He knew that she knew that Jane would take every moment to make her feel loved and wanted, and that included kissing in public as well.

Because nobody would blame them, after having turned down any moment to just indulge in the urge of kissing for years.

And anyway, it was impossible to have a decent relationship with Patrick Jane.

Minelli coughed politely, and the couple pulled away, immediately looking at him.

He smiled and looked at the spot where the three Musketeers had just been. Jane instantly worked to calm Lisbon down and ran off into the rest of the supermarket, in search of his children.

Minelli took the opportunity to walk towards Lisbon and pull her in for a hug. She startled, before she wrapped her arms around him – he guessed the kiss with Jane had made her completely forget they were standing in the middle of a supermarket.

"Are you happy, Teresa?" he asked after a few moments, and she nodded.

"I am, Virgil. You need to stop being so protective over me-"

"But I consider you my only daughter. Can you blame a man for wanting to react on his fatherly instincts from time to time?"

Lisbon's body shook a bit as she laughed softly. "You know, Jane says that the entire time as well."

Minelli rolled his eyes – that did not surprise him.

"I merely want you to be happy, Teresa. Because I love you."

Lisbon's breath caught in her throat – she knew it was true but he had never voiced his thoughts out loud. Not even when they had been standing in front of the door leading to the chapel, she ready to be wed to the man she truly loved the most, had Minelli told her he loved her. He had simply reassured her that everything would be alright, but nothing more than that.

Well, better late than never.

"I love you too, Virgil," she whispered, and of course the King of Smugness decided to join them in that moment, carrying one princess and two knights following him.

He looked at the two adults with worry, but when he saw that it was merely an act of affection and nothing more, he continued being the man he was.

"Guess what I found? Rapunzel and two Prince Charmings. They have this life-like function, they can breathe and talk and walk – so I bet they can be pretty annoying. They're on discount," he said, and moved to put Lucy in the shopping cart. She chuckled, and now, even Jacob seemed to enjoy the craziness his father was performing, as he climbed to get into the shopping cart, before Jane lifted him and then Noah as well. They sat down, the three of them smiling like fools, and Lisbon smiled a sweet smile as well, her heart obviously warming at the sight.

This was where Lisbon belonged, Minelli told himself. This is where she's happiest.

Yet he just couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, he regretted not talking to her for such a long time. Maybe then the big hole in his heart wouldn't be so big.

"Well, if they're on discount, then we'd better take them. I know you've wanted them for so long," Lisbon played along, and Jane chuckled like a young boy who just was told that he could stay up late – Minelli didn't know whether that was because Lisbon was playing along with him or because the words had a deeper meaning.

Lisbon rolled the shopping cart to the check-outs, and Minelli followed, not wanting to miss out on the family stuff that was going on.

The three children in the shopping cart were having the best time of their life, chuckling and whispering things to each other. When Jane picked up Noah to place the boy on the assembly belt, Minelli forced himself to say goodbye.

He wouldn't miss out on this beautiful family, he would respond to Lisbon's calls more from now on. Just to make sure Jane wasn't secretly doing naughty stuff and to make sure the kids were getting the attention they deserved.

He took a step forward to Lisbon and placed a small kiss on her cheek.

"I have to go now, Teresa. Good luck with everything," he whispered. She nodded in reply, and after he had nodded towards Jane, he left.

It didn't escape anyone's attention – well, maybe the three laughing children in the shopping cart didn't see it – that Lisbon was watching Minelli leave with a hint of sorrow in her eyes.

That would be dinner for Lisbon and Minelli to catch up on the past few missing years.

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**A/N: Let me know what you think, please!**


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